British girl, 12, beats Einstein and Hawking's Mensa scores

CHELMSFORD, England, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A 12-year-old British schoolgirl achieved the highest possible score on a Mensa test, besting noted geniuses Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Lydia Sebastian, a student at the Colchester County school in Essex, England, achieved a perfect score of 162 on Mensa's Cattell III B paper, beating the scores of Einstein and Hawking by two points.

The girl was humble about being placed in the company of the noted scientists.

"I don't think I can be compared to such great intellectuals such as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. They've achieved so much. I don't think it's right," Sebastian told CNN.

Mensa said Sebastian's score puts her in the top 1 percent of intelligence. The group said anyone with a score of over 148 is considered to be a genius.

"I was really nervous before the test and I thought it was going to be really hard. But as I started the test, I thought it was a bit easier than I thought it was going to be," she said.

Sebastian is the third young person to achieve a 162 this year -- fellow British students Nicole Barr, 12, and Aahil Jouher, 10, also received top scores on the Mensa test this year.